


Stages

by greenkangaroo



Category: Naruto
Genre: Dealing With Loss, Friendship, Gen, Grief, the uchiha incident
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-30
Updated: 2017-03-30
Packaged: 2018-10-13 01:19:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10503459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenkangaroo/pseuds/greenkangaroo
Summary: Akimichi Chouichi mourns for something he never really had to lose. OC-centric, arguably takes place in the What Even universe. Completely disregards Itachi Shinden.





	

1.

There are bodies littered in the streets and Chouichi can’t find Itachi. 

No one is supposed to pass the line set up by the ANBU but the ANBU can’t touch him; his skin is too cold, freezing anyone who tries. He moves from corpse to corpse, mechanical. Looking, looking but never finding.

Where is he?

Where?

He hears the crying coming from the Patriarchial home at the same time the ANBU in charge does.

There is a moment where Chouichi is sure his eyes meet the eyes behind the mask, sure he is going to have to kill this ANBU, sure he will fail but equally sure he will try.

The next thing he knows is his bed, and his father, and so many words.

They are all dead and Itachi is gone.

2.

“I should have been there.” He whispers into his knees.

“You couldn’t have known.” His mother says.

“What could you have done?” Is what his father says and it is harsh but it is true. He isn’t like Itachi. He is skilled advanced for his age and blessed- cursed?- with a throwback kekkei genkai.

Next to Itachi he looks like a kid in too-big shoes. 

An entire clan slaughtered in a single night is not the kind of thing any ninja could stop by himself.

He curls up on his side and feels a hollow ache in his chest.

_I should have been there._

3.

“He DIDN’T DO IT!”

“Chouichi,” Shikaku says, and Chouichi hates how calm he is, how confident. “All empirical evidence points to Itachi as the perpetrator.”

“Why?” Chouichi demands though it isn’t his place, though Chouichi doesn’t need to know, though he knows that Shikaku has only come because Choza is his closest friend and Chouichi was- Was.

“He had the ability.” Shikaku tiks things off on his fingers as he speaks. “He had motive. The timing works out. No one came in or out of the village. Everything we have points to someone inside the clan and Sasuke is incapable. That leaves the one body we don’t have.”

Shikaku crosses his arms. Chouichi hates the pity in his eyes, hates how deeply he can see and hates every Nara before and after for being so damn smart.

“I’m sorry, Chouichi.” Shikaku said and damn him he means it.

“You’re lying.” Chouichi whispers, and beneath him the floor turns to ice.

Shikaku carefully takes his leave. 

Chouichi can’t see the Nara clan symbol for a month afterwards without murderous rage rising in his throat thick as bile.

He breaks five door frames before he is officially banished from the house proper. The frames are old, built of chakra-infused wood meant to stand against an Akimichi’s wrath.

Chouichi’s anger is from a deeper place and he cannot quench it.

When at last he faces his father their fight mars the landscape so badly that trees will not grow there for many years and in the end Chouichi is a sobbing wreck against his father’s shoulder, screaming at no one and nothing. 

Choza holds him and can do no more.

4.

Chouichi keeps taking missions. It doesn’t matter what they are- escorts, construction, anything they’ll give an Akimichi chunin he takes. He works to exhaustion and then works some more.

He knows that people in the missions office are talking. He knows that the Clan heads are asking questions his father can’t answer.

He doesn’t care.

He can’t stand the color red. For a solid month he ties his hair under a bandana like Ibiki’s, keeps his eyes on the ground in the family compound. There’s red everywhere.

There is no red in the Uchiha graveyard.

It’s separate from the main graveyard and he knows that it’s because there are so many of them, but.

But.

He cleans up. Sweeps, rakes. Sometimes he works through the night, leaves his tools leaning up against a tree and goes to the missions office. They're always there when he gets back, dependable as the rising sun. 

5.

Chouji finds him at the graveyard. Little Chouji who shouldn’t be out on his own quite yet.

Chouji, the same age as Sasuke, who is the last of his clan.

Chouji watches his brother for a moment.

When Chouichi turns to put the rake aside, Chouji is standing there with the broom.

“Thanks.” Chouichi whispers.

Chouji smiles.

6.

The Akimichi care for the Uchiha graveyard.

There is no written contract. The sole surviving member of the Uchiha never asked for the help. It is given anyway.

The caretakers vary. Sometimes it’s Touma and Douma, the twins, whistling softly while they work. Sometimes it’s Makaro and his father and sister. Chouji can be found there, with a quiet Shikamaru in tow. 

Often, it is Chouichi.

He rakes the leaves, sweeps the stones. He freshens the incense, checks for damage.

When he makes Jounin, Chouichi goes to the Third Hokage and asks to join ANBU.

Third looks at him and says, “No Akimichi has made it through the training before.”

“You’ve never met an Akimichi quite like me.” is Chouichi’s response.

When Chouichi has the mask, is officially given the black-and-bone gear, Chouji gives him a gift.

It’s a pinwheel made of folded paper. It flutters beautifully in the breeze.

The paper is unapologetically crimson.

A whirligig.

7.

The ANBU surround Sasuke Uchiha with haste and it’s clear he expected them. He makes no move towards his weapons. Neither do the two men accompanying him.

“I need to speak to the Hokage.” Sasuke says. “About the Uchiha Incident.”

Behind his little brother, Itachi has a barely perceptible smile on his serene face.

A soft wind travels through the trees, over the scars of the fight of a father and son. It brushes across dozens of headstones and in an open window, to push the folds of a red paper pinwheel.

The world takes a breath and keeps turning.

**Author's Note:**

> Just a couple of end notes here. Firstly both Chouichi and Itachi are advanced in age in this ‘verse- Itachi became an ANBU operative at, like, eight and that’s insane. So let’s put them both at around fourteen.
> 
> Chouichi does have a kekkei genkai- the same as Haku, Ice Release. This is connected to my running headcanon that the Akimichi didn’t originate in the Land of Fire/that the Suikazan of Mist are distant relatives. It’s a genetic throwback, AKA one in some ridiculous amount chance of being inherited. Do I know anything about genetics? No. Go with it.
> 
> Referring to ANBU gear as 'black and bone' isn't canon as far as I know and possibly something I picked up from a fic I've forgotten. Should anyone remember I'd like to give credit where credit is due!


End file.
